Hit off catwalks at Trop prompts use of replay

By
David Adler
MLB.com

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Tropicana Field catwalks came into play Wednesday night in the Rays' 3-2 loss to the A's.

With one out in the ninth inning and Oakland leading, 3-2, Logan Forsythe hit a high popup in front of the pitcher's mound. The ball struck one of the catwalks at Tropicana Field and dropped fair between four converging A's infielders. Forsythe -- who was not hustling on the play -- ended up on first with a single.

The play prompted a crew chief review to determine whether the ball was in play.

"I don't even know how they could have reviewed that, how they would have been able to see the ball where it actually hit," manager Joe Maddon said after the game. "I even said to them, 'That's gonna be kind of impossible.'"

The A's appeared to argue that the ball hit the catwalk in foul territory and should have been a dead ball. Maddon insisted the ball stayed in fair territory, in which case the play would be live.

Umpiring crew chief Brian Gorman initiated a non-home run boundary review to determine if the ball was fair. After 1 minute, 25 seconds, the initial fair call was confirmed.

"Had they caught the ball, I would have argued that it hit foul originally," Maddon said, joking. "Because that would have been a foul ball."